The present invention concerns a cooking apparatus, such as an oven, roasting jack, rotisserie, grill or the like, of the type comprising, positioned in the vicinity of a heat source and installed on a frame, a skewer support, carrying a plurality of bearings distributed in a circle, and in which may be housed skewers such that the skewer axes are parallel to one another and are disposed equidistantly from the center of the circle.
Such cooking apparatuses are well known to those skilled in this art. In this type of apparatus, the bearings are generally driven in rotation about the circle to bring the skewers fixed inside said bearings in front of heat sources of whatever type disposed about the circle. In the course of this cooking, the grease from the products to be cooked is liquified and tends to accumulate beneath the skewers. This grease may if desired be recovered in a drip pan. Nevertheless, as the grease is at all time being liberated from the product regardless of the position of the skewer on the circle of bearings, significant spattering of grease occurs onto the side walls of the cooking enclosure, requiring a thorough cleaning. Moreover, in certain cooking apparatuses, the skewers are mounted directly above a pit constituting the cooking enclosure. That pit, loaded with material to be burned, such as wood or charcoal, is closed at its upper part by a cooking grill on which falls the grease from the products. Owing to the proximity of the fire, the risk of the grease catching fire is very significant.
An object of the present invention is to propose a cooking apparatus whose design permits limiting the drops of grease from the products to be cooked, such that cleaning of the apparatus is facilitated and the risks of grease fires are reduced.
To that end, the invention has as an object a cooking apparatus, such as an oven, roasting jack, rotisserie, grill or the like, of the type comprising, positioned in the vicinity of a heat source and installed on a frame, a skewer support, carrying a plurality of bearings distributed about a circle, and in which may be mounted, in a removable and freely rotatable manner, skewers such that the skewer axes are parallel to one another and disposed equidistantly from the center of the circle, characterized in that each skewer shaft is provided with a satellite element that cooperates, when the skewers are engaged in the bearings, with at least one planetary element, such that the skewer shafts are simultaneously and continuously driven in rotation about their own axes during relative displacement between the satellite and planetary elements.
By virtue of the fact that the skewer shafts are continuously driven in rotation about themselves, the grease from the product to be cooked tends to be displaced permanently along the body of the product by sliding along this latter, without ever falling downwardly. Furthermore, the film of grease thus formed on the surface of the product to be cooked tends to improve its organoleptic properties after cooking by preventing a drying out of the surface of the product to be cooked during cooking.